Game 2

As most of you probably know, we had our teams 4th total game last sunday (my second). AND WE WON in 3! So we are still in first in our division! I guess the teams we have played the last 2 weeks have been the tougher teams in the division, so it is good that we beat them! I felt that this team we played this past sunday was actually not as good as the team we played our first match, but others seem to think this team was better (or maybe they were supposed to be going into the match) not really sure.

Our game was at 6pm and we got done and back to the house around 7:30. I figured out what was missing in these games, there is no break between the second and third match like in the U.S. You show up, warm up and play how ever many games you need to play to win, with no 10 min breaks in between any of the matches. It is kind of growing on me, I enjoy just playing, and not having to warm back up.

After the match, Lynnea and I got back to our apartment, showered and then went out to find some food and gelato! We ended up at this little restaurant right outside the main square, and I had some awesome Caprese! Then some stracciatella gelato (which is basically chocolate chip), my favorite kind!

I don't have any more pictures from this past match, but here are a couple videos from our september scrimmage, and our match 2 weeks ago.  In the match footage, we are the team that has a player (the libero)with the white jersey. It is hard to tell but we are wearing the blue, white and red jerseys. I am the middle with the white knee pads, not the black...Enjoy!

Italian word/phrase of the day: stasera, che cosa fai  "tonight, what do you do?"

Team Time!

Today was another great day!
This morning when I woke up, Lynnea and I walked to a store that was similar to our Best Buys and bought ourselves phones that will work here, so I can now contact my teammates and coaches! ha, about time.
After that, we ate lunch at our house with all of our teammates. Maria and Valentina prepared a lot of food, and all of our team came over to eat! We had Gnocchi with vegetables, sausage, pork ribs, rabbit, potatoes, and some sweets! It was so much fun to have all of our team members in our house, talking and laughing, it was wonderful!

Then after we had lunch, we drove to Rome with Davide (our coach) to watch a team we will be playing next weekend. Then after that, we went to watch our men's team play as well.

Tomorrow we have a home match against another one of the top teams in our league!


Italian word/phrase of the day: oggi, io compro un telefono  "today, I buy a phone" (since I don't know past tense, I just speak in present and they understand me! past tense will come later)

teammate, Valentina, and me at a rest stop on our way to Rome!

Good Times!

Today was pretty much like any other day I have here in Fondi. I woke up, opened my windows and the shutters to let the wonderful sunlight shine into the room, grabbed my laundry, and walked upstairs to our top floor laundry room and did some laundry; 2 loads, all by myself without asking which setting to put it on!
At practice, we prepared for the team we will play on Sunday. Before the practice we sit down and talk about the other team, scouting report, kinda like watching video in college, but there was no video. Then we get on the court, do a little fundamental passing and serving then go right into playing! Tons of fun, but for some reason my legs were super tired, probably still recovering from lifting, good thing we have tomorrow off before we play on Sunday.
Then after practice, some of the girls invited us to go to a local pub to get something to eat, so we got ready in the locker room, and 6 of us headed out to the pub! We ordered our food and drinks, everyone got beer, but I am in ITALY, so I got a glass of vino (Wine)!

Our food came, and we sat and ate and talked about several different topics, just getting to know one another and how things worked in the different countries. It was tons of fun! And the language barrier didn't seem to be a problem, we were all able to understand what one another was saying.

As we were leaving we saw some of our other teammates and one of the girls asked the table what we were doing tomorrow, and I was so excited because I knew how to say it in Italian, so I told her and she looked at me like, nope, don't understand, not a good answer, and Maria my roommate, who told me it was a good sentence laughed because she knew how excited I was, to try out my new sentence!  But it ended up to be a great sentence and she understood it after we discussed it, I am totally proud of myself, I thought, and spoke a full, comprehensible sentence in Italian!  So here it is:


Italian word/phrase of the day: Domani, Io vado a Roma!  "Tomorrow, I go to Rome"
Because tomorrow we are going to Rome, our coach wants us to go and watch another one of the teams that we play next weekend,

Valentina, Simona, and Maria at the pub

Lynnea, Me and Maddalena

All of us at the pub after practice

Getting settled!

Today was a very fun day!! We woke up and went grocery shopping with Antonio, got all of the foods that we need, figured out that we are allowed to go to Pronto Freddo (store of our team owner) and get food and they will just write down how much per month! After that we came home and cooked lunch, and I studied my Italian books, took a nap and waited for our house meeting with all four of the girls and Antonio.
In the meeting we addressed what we needed to do as roommates to live peacefully and transfer that to the court, it was pretty simple, just hard to know if everyone was on the same page before because we can't really communicate.

After that, we went to practice, I don't know why, but for some reason it was tons of fun! We did a couple of positional defensive drills, so when it was time for the right backs to dig, middles got to set!!! MY FAV!
Then after that, we played more wash type drills and I got to play more back row, and I was very satisfied with how it went. Then we scrimmaged, and at the end of practice, I was soooo tired that I really couldn't jump anymore (didn't help that we did major legs in weights yesterday) but it was very satisfying!
We came home, and as a house ate dinner! I don't know, it was fun to all sit around the table and eat. We had caprese, Maria taught me how to make it fresh, as if there was any other way. Caprese, for those of you who don't know, is fresh mozzarella and fresh tomatoes seasoned and put together! You slice the mozzarella and tomatoes, and alternate layering them (mozzarella, tomato, mozzarella, tomato, etc) then you put a little pepper, salt, oregano and olive oil over it  and then you eat it! and you can eat it just like that, or you can place a slice on some bread and eat it! LOVE IT!
After that, Maria and Valentina (our teammate from Rome who stays with us some nights) asked us to play cards! The game ended up being just like texas hold 'em, so luckily Lynnea was able to explain it to me!  We didn't have any chips so we just used fake bets, but Maria is going to bring some back with her when she visits home this week. It was so much fun to sit around the table and play! What an ending to a great day, I will be going to bed with a smile on my face!


Italian word/phrase of the day: io vinco "i win"

finally...these are pictures of our new apartment! It is used as a bed and breakfast in the summer, it is 4 total floors, the first being where you enter and the top floor a laundry room and covered balcony to dry the clothes...

my bedroom! double bed! 

My own bathroom

stairs going up to our laundry room

my room straight back, left doorway leads to two more rooms

stairs leading up to my room from 1st floor

kitchen and dining area

kitchen

FIRST GAME!

Today we had our first game,
I woke up this morning and successfully walked to the store by myself (Lynnea was sleeping) and bought stuff I needed to cook lunch. Then came back home, cooked myself some pasta with tomato sauce, and started to learn some Italian verbs. Lunch was fun, I sat in the kitchen with my Italian verb work book and worked on the first lesson, common verbs ending in -are. Maria was downstairs too cooking, and she sat down and was helping me, and repeating them in English.

After lunch, we all rested and got ready for the match. It was our first match (Lynnea and I, that is) and it was home! We weren't sure if we were going to be cleared to play, but we must have been because they put us in! It was interesting to see the different cheers that the team does, and we don't know what they are saying. Luckily, when they shake hands with the other team they say Ciao, I can handle that!

It was a great game, everyone worked hard and played awesome volleyball! It felt good to be playing again.

We haven't really figured out what they do for Halloween around here, we know that they celebrate it because we have seen children dressed in costumes, and stores have decorated, but just really really young kids, doesn't seem to be a holiday that older children take part in.  We have been told that in the bigger cities, like Roma, they celebrate it more.

That is all for today, tomorrow, I will work on taking pictures of the new apartment to post! Until then:

Italian word/phrase of the day: vincere  "to win" (haven't gotten to -ere verbs yet, so I don't know how to conjugate it)

Day Trip

Today we had the day off, so we took a day trip to Rome with our coach to watch the men's volleyball team play!
I think our expectations of what games were like were a little different then what actually happened.
When we got to the gym, it was just that, a gym, no bleachers, not much sideline area, and very little room for spectators to even stand and watch. Luckily we got their early enough that we were able to snatch the one and only bench on the sidelines!
We also noticed that the crowd is very different from what we expected, I think we both pictured everyone cheering and yelling etc, there was a little bit of that, not a lot. But the game was tons of fun to watch, it was super intense. Although our men's team lost, it was an exciting 5 game match.

Now it is time to prepare for our game tomorrow, which we were informed that we (meaning Lynnea and me) might not be able to play in because we have to wait to be cleared by the volleyball federation, and from what we understand they aren't able to do that until Tuesday, and if we do play (and win) and we don't have all the papers needed by the federation, they could take away the win. So we will just have to wait and see what our coach decides to do.


Italian word/phrase of the day:  dammi cinque  "give me five!"

I'M BACK

Well, I'm back!
So much as been happening since my last post. We were informed that we would have to take a quick trip back to the U.S to get our visas. Because of the arrangement Italy has with the U.S we must apply for visas in person, at the Consulate in the region of your birth...luckily we have an Italian Consulate in Detroit so we had to pay them a quick visit. But all is good and we have obtained our Visto! We are now back in Fondi, and are ready to start playing. We arrived on the 27th.

While we were gone, our team's season started, they had two games and won both of them! That is super exciting news! They also picked up another middle hitter, she is from Brazil but has been living and playing in Italy for a couple of years now and is doing rehab for her knee and should be ready soon.

So since we have a new player, we had to move apartments...AGAIN! We moved out of our apartment over looking the traffic circle and moved down the street into a Bed and Breakfast (in the summer). It is 4 levels.
The first level is where you enter and it has just some room for storage and the entry into the garage. On the second floor there is the kitchen and one bedroom. On the 3rd floor there are 3 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom and double beds! Yes, a bed I can fit in! That is where I am, I am on the 3rd floor, right at the top of the stairs, kinda tucked back in the corner. Then on the top level, there is the laundry room, and a huge covered balcony which is used to hang the clothes to dry! It is awesome!

It is interesting, now we are living with 4 people, sometimes 5 (our teammate from Rome stays some nights) and we don't know Italian and they don't know a lot of English, so it has been very hard to communicate and has been kind of separated. But no worries, I came readying this time, armed with bunches of Italian books, ready to learn and use it whenever I can!

So that is what has been going on with me lately, my body clock is super messed up and I find myself sleeping...all the time. I sleep when it is night time here, I sleep when it is the middle of the day. And I am tired at all the wrong times. I really need get on the right track because we have a game this weekend, and I want to be ready.

Pictures of the new place, coming soon..

this is the truth..super hard to adjust